THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[June i, 1885 



Boston anil Philadelphia, during the past year, valuing 

 one hundred thousand pounds sterling The above is 

 a low estimate as thousands of second class bunches are 

 rejected and consigned to the " Hog Pen." or thrown 

 overboard if carts cannot be spared to take them to the 

 piggery. Fruit dealers and their agents are very particular 

 as to the quality of the fruit. Bananas must not be 

 harvested too soon, as "thin fruit" is rejected ; then, again, 

 bananas must not be " too full" for they would ripen too 

 fast and probably rot on the passage to New York and 

 other American fruit ports. Vessels from Jamaica take 

 from five days to ten days on tho passage according to 

 the capacity of the steamer and navigators thereof, 

 weather, &c. ic. Banana cultivation is likely to be the 

 leading product of the island unless a great reduction 

 takes place in sugar. Banana cultivation cannot be carried 

 on in a slipshod manner, no half-measures will suffice 

 to be successful, for, unless highly cultivated, the fruit 

 will be inferior and quite unsaleable : a " jive or six hand " 

 buuch would be consigned to the pigs, and thrown over- 

 board when the pigs have had enough; " seven hand bunches " 

 are sometimes refused and always realize less per bunch 

 than "eiyht-hand bunches." With high cultivation, trenching, 

 ploughing and frequent hoeings, 12 aud 14 hand bunches are 

 produced, more than a stout negro's load especially if 

 " fuU fruit." Sometimes we pack good specimen bunches 

 for the Liverpool market in separate boxes to preveut 

 bruising on the voyage, and the carts are always padded 

 with dried banana " trash " (dead leaves). During the 

 past busy season in the banana and fruit trade your cor- 

 respondent gained considerable insight into the trade, aud 

 would recommend banana cultivation on a small scale 

 combined with other products including cacao and coconuts 

 to be a paying concern in Jamaica or any other part of the 

 AVost Indies, the American markets being always open to 

 a brisk trade. 



Coffee Cultivation. — The Blue Mountain coffee of 

 Jamaica has always enjoyed a good name and fetched 

 high prices in Liverpool; it still fetches fancy prices, but 

 the cultivation of coffee compared to Oeylon is very 

 second rate, nearly all the coffee estates being patchy, aud 

 weeded ouly three or four times a year; no draiuing done, 

 and hence the patchy appoarance; roads are very mis- 

 erablc, road tracers not in use, not known. Curing is 

 well attended to, and a fair white sample of parchment 

 coffee may be seen on most of the barbacues. The ''works" 

 on a coffee estate in Jamaica are the planter's pride: 

 " Have you seen the ' works ' on such and such an 

 estate?" Well, what about the "works?" A great big 

 empty stone store with walls of stone thick enough for 

 fortifications, enormous drying grounds of massive mason 

 work, terrace above terrace— to dry what? The days of 

 large coffee crops are gone, the estates are worked on 

 the "cheap and nasty" principle; therefore there is little 

 prospect of improvement in quantity or quality under the 

 present system of false economy. Take "Farm Hill," for 

 instance, a large estate paying a European 14s per week 

 and he lives in the store, whilst the bungalow is rotting 

 for want of warming. Whitfield Hall, tlio next property, 

 is better cared for, and Mr. McCrea takes an interest in 

 his work, though he cannot make his fields look better 

 than they are when only weeded quarteily or less fre- 

 quently. The next " estate," " Abbey Green," is so 

 patchy that one forgets he is walking through a coffee 

 estate and requires all his eyes to keep on tb? "roads." 

 Then comes "Kadnor"with some good coffee bearing 

 heavily round the bungalow aud " works." Above this 

 estate there are some good fields of coffee the property 

 of Mr. Davidson,, but the coloured man who is olleil (bo 

 " overseer " objected to my visiting it and disgusted me 

 with his want of civility. From the abovementionec! 

 property there is nothing but scrub and yam patches until 

 Mr. William gabouadiarp's new purchased estate is 

 reached, aud as I arrived lateand left early, can say no- 

 thing, good, bad, or indifferent, regarding it. Suffice it to I 

 say that my impressions of coffee culture in Jamaica are 

 very so-so and that it would be difficult to make a silk 

 purse out of a sow's ear. There is no extension of coffee 

 cultivation in the Blue Mountains. Mr. George Henderson 

 has bought up a lot of old properties and cleans them 

 up where the coffee is still alive. He has one good field 

 pi pruned coffee called " Green Valley," and this little j 



patch of good cultivation reminds everybody passing it 

 what coffee might do under better treatment than it now 

 receives on the Blue Mountains of Jamaica. Fancy my 

 classing bananas before old King Coffee, but it is a melan- 

 choly fact that bananas receive more attention than 

 the fragrant bean. 



Libekian CoFfEE,— Liberian coffee would grow well 

 here, and has been tried on a small scale. Considering 

 that Arabian coffee grows well along the coast line, 

 Liberian coffee would probably do better as it stands hot 

 weather better. Some piants have been put down at Low 

 Layton by Mr. Mason for Mr. Broughton aud Mr. Janourof 

 Priest's Kiver beyond Port Antonio has planted a few. 



Cocoa on Cacao.— As a proof that this plant is grown 

 in Jamaica we drink our chocolate every morning, and 

 agree with Linneus that it is " theobroma " (food for 

 gods). As to the cultivation it is very scattered: a tree 

 or two in this garden and a tree in that garden grow- 

 ing higgledy-piggledy with mangoes, oranges, coffea arabica 

 and coconuts, breadfruits, &c, &c. The Creole girls make 

 it into sticks, and these they carry to market on Saturdays 

 and sell for a " quatty " or three-halfpence. Cocoa 

 or cacao plantations are few and far between: many 

 people have a few shuck specimens of caoao plants 

 struggling with the weeds under the too dense shade of 

 banauas. As far as this cultivation is concerned it is a 

 greater disappointment than coffea arabica and coffea 

 liberica, because a Oeylon planter expects to find the 

 West Indies the homo of the cacao tree and finds to 

 his suprise that Ceylon grows the article on a much more 

 extensive scale and produces pods of better quality and 

 size. Anyone can see at a glance that most cultivations 

 in the West Indies are almost at a standstill, and Oeylon 

 will most undoubtedly take the place of the West Indies 

 in the production of cacao. 



Cinchona Cultivation.— People in Jamaica do not do 

 things with a rush ; hence the cinohona spec, is limited 

 to a few small clearings, the Portland Gap Company 

 taking the lead with a fine field of officinalis and a few 

 Ledgerianas doing fairly well ; their clearing would be 

 better if drained, roaded and placed under European 

 supervision. Mr. McCrea junior has opened 20 acres of 

 officinalis : the plants are mere seedlings, and will take 

 some time to grow into trees, especially as weeds grow 

 faster than cinchona and choke the ground. Mr. Marshall 

 (late of Ceylon) is wisely putting down cinchona and 

 coffee in the same clearing in case of an accident. He 

 has opened fifty acres and is knocking down another fifty 

 at an elevation of 5,000 feet'. Other planters have put in 

 a few plants of officinalis and succirubra, and Mr. George 

 Henderson is poshing on the growth of Ledgeriana plants 

 obtained from the Government Plantations. If cinchona 

 goes up in price, again the Jamaica cultivators will make 

 money, for the climate aud soil are both suitable for 

 the growth of all varieties of cinchona. 



Tea.— It is very strange that tea cultivation has never 

 bun thought of in Jamaica, with rainfall, climate, soil, 

 elevation, in short everything in its favour. Hitherto there 

 are no tea bushes but those in the Government gardens 

 up in the Blue Mountains, and from these Mr. Mason of 

 Low Layton and Mr. Forrest (late of Ceylon) obtained seed 

 from Mr. D. Morris to try in Annatto Bay on " Iter 

 boreale '' and Low Layton near Buff Bay. The coast of 

 Jamaica facing Cuba is suitable for tea growing, the 

 rainfall being over 100 inches per annum and the soil 

 good, with a forcing climate for the growth of flushes. 



Ginger. — Jamaica ginger is a thing one hears much of, 

 and sees less in the way of cultivation, the enterprise 

 having nearly died out; still there is a limited cultivation 

 of this valuable root, for ginger beer is made, and sold 

 for l^d and 3d per bottle, the former made of brown 

 sug;ir and the latter with white. A stick called the "chew 

 stick" is used to give it flavour and a festive appear- 

 ance; the " chew stick " is also used by the Creoles aa 

 a substitute for a tooth-brush, and fine specimens of 

 sets of tooth tho natives possess. The cultivation of 

 ginger has fallen off in Jamaica of late years, and I 

 have not seen any cultivation mysi If. 



Pimento or Allspice. — This is an article of export and 

 grows wild in partsof the island, and is said to bedifficult to 

 propagate ; like the cacao, it grows mixed up with ether 

 products. ' 



